Thursday, August 9, 2012

Horror

Zombies, vampires, ghosts, and ...crickets? Try a taste of writing from two very different fantasy authors. Flash stories are super short and perfect for when you 'just have a minute'. This anthology contains 15 stories from authors Sean Hayden and Jen Wylie. Run the rampart of emotions in this exciting mix of tales. From humor to twisted, there is something for everyone.

How much would you pay for a night of passion with your favorite celebrity?

After her untimely passing, the body of a world-renowned actress falls into the hands of an unscrupulous restorative artist. Using the funeral home in which he works as a den of sexual depravity, he auctions off a once in a lifetime opportunity with one of Hollywood’s most beloved starlets.

# 1: Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy.

# 2: Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be a raving nutcase.

So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2?

When two of the most twisted minds in the world of horror fiction face off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an “After School Special,” SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides.

Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other’s opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psycho win.

SERIAL contains the short story, SERIAL, a Q&A with Kilborn and Crouch, author bibliographies, and excerpts of Crouch’s DESERT PLACES, Konrath’s SHAKEN, and their collaboration with F. Paul Wilson and Jeff Strand, DRACULAS.

When you are in the military, you do as you are told. It is called discipline. You don't question those above you, and if it is for your country, you will do anything. But first, you have to believe! Robert James just wanted to serve his country, do his best and get back home to his mom and dad. From digging trenches to cleaning rifles, he did his best. Then, he found himself in the front row, killing children. They were the enemy, he was told, but for some reason, it didn't feel right. Maybe it was that one girls eyes that put him over the edge. Whatever it was, he didn't like it. Now, it was his turn to fight fire with fire!

Tag Line: Through a miraculous conception, Avalon Labrador must give birth to herself before she is executed, to solve her husband’s murder and her own wrongful conviction.

When the reincarnated Avy Labrador is kicked out of her stepfather’s house on her 18th birthday, she has no idea that the man who raised her framed her mother to cover his murder so he could acquire a major software empire. Now, years later, with the help of her magician boyfriend, Sebastian, Avy is about to discover that her birth was otherworldly and for a purpose. The ancient Roman God Janus was so appalled by the heinous murder of Tom Labrador by his brother Drake that he opened up a War Gate.

Avy has received half of her mother’s soul light and half of a God’s essence. Her mission is to put the real killer behind bars. The only catch: she must learn to “Gate-Walk”, that’s time traveling to the layman. She soon finds out that she is a drunk driver on the space/time continuum super highway

This short story is taken from a new novel called THE HUNGRY, which also stars Sheriff Penny Miller. THE HUNGRY was released as an ebook October 1, 2011, with an introduction by best-selling zombie author Joe McKinney ("Dead City," "Flesh Eaters"). The paperback was released soon after. The sequel THE HUNGRY 2: THE WRATH OF GOD is also out now.

As a sixteen year old voodoo queen in the making, Joan Renault just wants to be like all the other girls in the small town of Monte Parish, Louisiana—obsessed with boys and swamped with social lives. If the other kids would quit calling her “hoodoo hag,” she might have a small shot at normality. It would also help if Joan’s weekend outings with her secret crush, Dave, weren’t always being interrupted by her dead Grandmere, the legendary Marie Laveau. After all, it’s hard to make out with your best friend when your grandmother is watching! But when you come from a long line of voodoo priestesses with dried gator heads decorating the wall of their huts, normal doesn’t come easily.

When Joan witnesses the brutal sacrifice of a child to a tree Druid, she learns her Grandmere’s scandalous past has come back to haunt those living in the present. Hera, a vengeful voodoo priestess is determined to use the residual energy of Pandora’s Box to revive a sleeping voodoo god and declare war on the descendants of Marie Laveau, especially Joan. Suddenly, Greek myths are being re-enacted all over town, and Joan has her hands full trying to sort it all out. With the approach of Samedi’s Day—the voodoo day of resurrection—Joan must learn to accept her destiny in order to stop the approaching threat to her family and friends.

Explore the darkness within the human heart ... Set foot inside the morgue at Stratton Memorial Hospital, a place where the scales of life and death have tipped in the wrong direction, and wander the city beyond, where fantasies of sex, drugs, and violence can become frighteningly real. Redemption may be found under a scalpel, in an alley, or sometimes, by embracing the darkest corner of the soul.

The Apocrypha Sequence is a series of dark fantasy collections with interwoven themes and interconnected stories from Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Australia's master of the macabre. Also in the Apocrypha Sequence: Divinity, Inferno, and Insanity.

Three friends discover a very strange shape in the clouds one day. By the time they realize it's not only not going away, but seems to be growing, it's too late. And the refrain that keeps repeating in their heads, about seeing the Son of Man coming in the clouds, a phrase that's meant to instill hope in the faithful, only seems to foretell their doom.

17-year-old Melody Miller did not want to hit the beach during Spring Break with her cousin Valery. That's because all Valery does is party -- all day and all night.

Armed with a fake ID, Valery hits the Sea Witch Nightclub, and the trouble she finds sends Melody on a journey of horror.

Can Melody save Valery from the vampire that abducted her? And who should she trust to guide her to the creature's lair--the vampire hunter Max who used her as bait or the hot vampire Colton that saved her life?

Since the 1970s, Humans have forced Supernaturals to live in caged cities known as habitats. Supernaturals are tagged at birth with silver brands embedded in their foreheads to identify them by species: a full moon for Vampires, a crescent moon for Shifters, a pair of wings for Fairies, an X for Mixbreeds, and the list goes on. Each supernatural species has been tagged and categorized by Humans.

Each habitat is themed and organized by a particular religion. This short story collection is set in the Santeria habitat. The first three stories are in the points of view of characters (MeShack, Zulu, and Lanore) from the novel Fire Baptized, and serve as a prequel to that story. The last short story is from the point of view of Cameo, a character who lives in the Santeria habitat and is from the young adult novel Chameleon, scheduled to be released in June of 2012.